New standards were adopted by the Council of Delegates at our Dallas Conference, and will go into effect beginning with visits in the summer of 1999. The major change in these standards is that accreditation standards will now affect all the camp-related programs and services of camp organizations throughout the entire year. As Site Approval designations run their three year course following visits in 1998, that designation will disappear and will be replaced by the designation “Accredited by the American Camping Association.”

This means there will be one single designation for camps, and a separate designation for conference/retreat centers. The Standards Board and Delegates realize that the framework for the standards we are currently using was developed when camps were just summer camps. Now, some 60 years after standards for camps were first established, we recognize that camps are increasingly year-round operations. These camps include outdoor education, short-term programs and retreats, a myriad of day and resident programs for a variety of age groups, and significant business from renting or leasing the property to others who plan and staff their own programs.

Why have we gone to single “camp” designation?

Accreditation is a service to the public. The public assumes that all programs sponsored or hosted by an accredited camp (or under the name of the accredited camp) meet some minimum level of standards. Therefore, we have established standards that are appropriate for the way camps operate at different times of year. Note that the exact requirement of the standard is NOT the same at all times of year. For instance, standards may address the issue of health histories, but the requirement changes as your style of operation changes — one requirement when you operate as a day or resident camp, and a completely different requirement when you rent or lease your facility to other groups who are responsible for their own supervision and health care.

In the past, courts of law have attempted to hold camps to the accreditation requirement written for resident camps (generally the highest level of care) even though an accident occurred when the camp facility was being leased to someone else in the “off season”. This single set of requirements created an unreasonable burden for camps in the courts based on requirements never intended to apply when the camp was not in charge of providing services to children.

In preparing for new accreditation visits in 1999 and following, camps will be led through a process of identifying programs or services they provide at any given time of year that may fall into one of the classifications for which there are standards.

Definitions for Classifications of Standards

The National Standards Board uses the following definitions.

1. Day camp: Sessions generally at least five days and may be much longer, operated and staffed by the camp. Camper goes home to parent or guardian each night, except for occasional overnight.
    
2. Resident camp: Sessions are generally at least five days (four nights) and may be multiple weeks in length. Program is operated and staffed by the camp and supervision of individual campers is a camp responsibility. Campers stay overnight and camp is responsible for campers 24 hours a day.

Trip and travel camping programs: Resident camp programs of three nights or more, often without a base location, whose program activities are based upon environments encountered as the group moves from location to location. May be a program run as an extension of resident or day camp or may be an exclusive trip and travel camp specializing in only trip, travel, or tour programs.

3. Short-term residential programs run by the camp: Sessions are generally three nights or less. Run and staffed primarily by the camp and includes weekend retreats, short environmental programs, skill-training weekends, parent-child programs, etc. Camp staff sometimes supplemented by adults from a participating group.
    
4. Rental or lease programs run by user groups: Other camps, groups, or programs rent or lease the camp’s facilities, and perhaps some services, to operate their own camping programs or retreats. The group may even be from within the camp’s parent organization. Includes most troop and club campouts, youth weekend retreats, outdoor education run by other groups, or specialty programs that operate their session at the camp’s facility. The camp may supply some staff and services, such as lifeguards and food service, but the primary responsibility for camper supervision and general programming is with the group. May be short or long sessions. The group utilizing the camp facilities and maintaining the responsibility for their program is called the User Group.

The new standards process in 1999 will allow you to classify your camp operations according to the above definitions. You will then easily identify which standards and which requirements within those standards apply to your camp operation(s).

Camps operating any or all of these programs on owned, leased, private, or public property will be eligible to seek the designation “Accredited by the American Camping Association.”

Three Concepts

There are three major concepts in the new standards that were discussed in detail at the Open Hearings in Dallas when the standards were adopted. We would like to share those principles with all camps so that you understand the foundation elements on which the standards are built.

1. Shifting Liability
ACA’s risk management materials have often discussed the four techniques in dealing with risk: reduce, avoid, retain, transfer. Transferring risk is usually seen as buying insurance, though this is not the only way to transfer. It is also possible to “transfer risk” by shifting the liability (or responsibility) to where the law allows it to be placed. Contracts are one way to do this.

For example, if the law in your state allows the use of liability waivers or assumption of risk agreements (and all states recognize these agreements in one form or another under specific conditions), then the use of those kinds of forms shifts the liability to where the law allows it to be shifted . . . to the participant.

The 1999 standards incorporate the concept of the camp providing certain services or levels of care, or advising rental or lease groups to provide that service. As an example, in day and resident camps when we are in loco parentis, we are responsible to provide emergency first aid care. When you have rental or lease groups in camp and you (the camp owner/operator) are acting in a landlord capacity, it is permissible by law and allowable by our standards to shift the liability of providing this service to the user group. Therefore, our standard will say “Do you provide or do you advise the user group to provide . . . .”

This approach allows camps to provide [lifeguards or first aiders] when the camp operator is in charge of program and supervision, but also gives the freedom to advise groups to provide that supervision when they are in charge of the program and supervision. This shifts the liability of providing that supervision to the user group which is appropriate when you are in the role of a landlord.

Some participants in the hearings in Dallas were uncomfortable with ACA establishing a standard that seemed to have no more teeth than “advising user groups to provide . . .” However, what the law expects of you when you are a landlord (and have groups on your property who are responsible for their own supervision and program) is different from what the law expects of you when you are in loco parentis — in place of the parent (as you are when you are responsible for supervision and program.)

The standards are written to give you the freedom to hold on the liability or to shift it to where the law allows it be shifted — to the user groups responsible for their own program and supervision. You shift this liability, when it is appropriate to do so, through contracts, written agreements, waivers, and/or instructing/advising groups of their responsibility to provide specified services or supervision. You are in control of deciding whether you want to retain the liability or shift it to the user group.

By shifting the liability to the user group, you do not insulate yourself from being sued. Nothing anyone does will totally shield you from suit. However, by taking these actions you will provide yourself a measure of protection by being able to demonstrate that contracts or written agreements show that the user group accepted the responsibility (liability) for providing the identified service or level of supervision.

2. What if I think the standard should be higher/different than the ACA standard?
Participants in the Hearings in Dallas recognized that there is confusion over what is a legal responsibility, and what is a moral/ethical responsibility or a personal preference. The issue arose over the proposed (now adopted) standard indicating accredited camps may “advise user groups” to provide a lifeguard. Many felt that the requirement should be that the camp or user group be required to provide a lifeguard.

Standards should, at a minimum meet basic legal requirements. ACA does not intend to set standards that are less than the legal obligation. Based on the legal obligations of landlords to warn and instruct (see below), the ACA standard appropriately requires camps to provide lifeguards when they are in charge of the program and supervision (in loco parentis). The standards also allows camps, when in the landlord mode, to either provide guards or advise user groups to provide guards.

This does not preclude camps from establishing practices for themselves that are higher than the standard. For instance, a minimum standard in ACA is that at least 80% of your staff be at least eighteen years of age. You may choose for reasons you consider moral, ethical, good business practice, or matters of personal preference to set the minimum age of your staff or the percentage of staff who are older than the minimum higher than ACA does. That is your right. But to hold every camp in the country to that higher standard may not be practical, particularly if the standard is mandatory.

The question then becomes “what is the requirement under the law?” There is a difference in what is required when you are in loco parentis and when you are a landlord. When it comes to the legal requirements for the provision of lifeguards for user groups, most camps are in states where the law is silent on this matter. Therefore, the ACA minimum requirement for times when you are a landlord becomes what is expected of landlords, generally — the duty to warn and instruct.

3. What is the requirement for landlords?
When providing the facility (camp site) and basic services (such a food service) to user groups, the camp operator is, under the law, in the role of the landlord. In contrast, when providing staff, giving direct supervision to campers or groups, and/or when providing staff-supervised program, the camp director assumes duties beyond that of a landlord. When working with persons under the age of majority, the duty under the law is called in loco parentis.

The landlord has a duty to provide a reasonably safe facility. The landlord has a duty to warn of dangers or conditions of which he/she is aware. This includes any latent or concealed peril of which there is knowledge, or which should be known if reasonable care were exercised. Such perils might include the presence of poisonous snakes, submerged rocks in the lake, or the need for lifeguards.

Note that this duty to warn is not a duty to enforce. Many directors feel that it is good business practice or ethical responsibility to enforce the warnings or advice given to user groups. Naturally, this creates a dilemma for directors. However, the legal requirement is a duty to warn.

In providing a facility, the landlord has a responsibility to inspect the facility and to maintain it in a reasonably safe condition. The landlord also has the responsibility to advise/instruct group leaders about information known to the professional (the camp director) that may be unknown to the lay person (group leader). Examples include appropriate ratios for supervision of persons or activities, qualifications of supervisors, provision of first aid care, safety regulations or emergency procedures specific to the site.

On the other hand, the camp director, when acting in loco parentis, has the responsibility for supervision of youth groups and assumes a greater responsibility than does a landlord for provision of first aid care, group supervision or activity supervision.

In either case, the camp director may be held liable for the negligence of an employee under the legal doctrine of respondeat superior. Once a camp staff member assumes a responsibility such as lifeguarding or providing health care or first aid, the camp is held responsible for the actions of the employee while they are acting in the scope of their employment and duties. Therefore, camps should make deliberate decisions about placing responsibilities that are not duties under the law on staff members. ACA is not saying “don’t provide staff lifeguards.” ACA is saying “make a conscious decision understanding your obligations as established by current legal requirements.”

If, under the law, the landlord is not responsible for performing a specific function, the camp may, through a contract, require the user group to provide for services or responsibilities the camp is not mandated to perform. These responsibilities may include areas such as first aid provision, supervision of group behavior, and supervision of recreational activities. If the camp chooses to provide such services while the camp is in the role of the landlord, it should do so knowingly and intentionally, understanding it is voluntarily assuming a risk it is not required to assume. If placing that responsibility on the user group, the camp should do so clearly in the contract.

To summarize, landowners/landlords:

• Are not an insurer of safety.
• Assume an obligation of making and keeping property in a reasonably safe condition if people are invited on the property.
• Have a duty to exercise reasonable care to discover dangerous defects on their land.
• Have a duty to warn of any latent or concealed perils of which they know or should have known.
• Have a duty to inspect and maintain the facility.

The risk management planning process for the landlord, therefore, calls upon camp directors to evaluate potential risks, identify methods to deal with those risks, review this material with legal counsel and insurance professionals, and develop a contract that is consistent with risk-apportionment decisions. ACA standards support this process and the right of the landlord to apportion risk or shift liability where that is appropriate and prudent.

Will accredited camps be sued?

Accreditation cannot keep you from being sued. It can provide you with a shield to defend yourself. You may be named in a suit if a guest group member drowns and there was no qualified lifeguard. If you have shifted the liability to guest group, if they have by contract agreed to provide guards, if you have warned them of the dangers of not having guards, and if you have a signed agreement to that effect, you have provided your attorney with a “shield” that will help to protect you.

Different Standards for Different Types of Operation

To protect camps from being held to an in loco parentis standard of care when the camp is really acting as a landlord, new standards have been adopted that define different requirements when operating a resident camp from when operating as a lessor of property. These new standards will not force camps into providing a standard of care where the law does not require that standard of care.

Beginning in the late fall of 1998, training in the new standards will be available in local sections. New standards books will be available in September of 1998. Contact your local section or the Standards Department at the national office (765-342-8456, ext. 333; or accreditation@aca-camps.org.)

Originally published in the 1998 Spring issue of The CampLine.